


It Just Makes You Stronger

by kitausuret



Series: Kinktober 2019 [6]
Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds, Secret Wars - Fandom, Spider-Island, Venom (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Apocalypse, Hospital beds, Kissing, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Rare Pairings, Secret Wars (2015), Slow Build, Survival, Unusual Allies, allies to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 19:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20972048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitausuret/pseuds/kitausuret
Summary: In the midst ofSecret Wars, the Manhattan Spider-Island Battleworld has been taken over by the Spider-Queen and her hordes of mind-controlled spider monsters. A handful of heroes stand against her - among them, Flash Thompson, also known as Agent Venom, and the android Avenger, the Vision.An unlikely allyship leads to a deep friendship... and more.Because there's nothing like the end of the world to bring people together.(Kinktober Day 6: Apocalypse)





	It Just Makes You Stronger

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the Spider-Island miniseries that ran during _Secret Wars_ (2015)! Don't ask where this ship came from! I don't know! It just happened! 
> 
> (Title inspired by "In the End" by Rush, _Fly By Night_ 1975)

“Who did you lose?”

Vision paused in the middle of repairing the circuitry beneath his plastoid flesh. “Manhattan has been devastated, Agen-- Flash.” He had to pause and correct himself after now seven times of the symbiote soldier insisting Vision call him  _ Flash _ . “I request that you specify.”

Across the table from him in the old subway office, Flash Thompson - now more human than symbiote at this moment, with the living suit peeled away from his head and neck - inspected one of his firearms and shrugged. “Just, people you cared about. I dunno.” 

Flash had been nervous around him at first. Initially, Vision had assumed it was due to his android nature and strange appearance and abilities. It turned out that Flash had merely been  _ intimidated _ due to Vision’s tenure and status as an Avenger. Never mind that he had only been rebuilt by Tony Stark a few months before New York descended into chaos, it had taken a full two weeks before Flash stopped gazing at him with wide-eyed admiration. 

Vision knew the phenomenon and hadn’t been particularly surprised. He’d saved the veteran when Flash had been alone, unable to ambulate, without his symbiote partner and bleeding out from fighting the Spider Queen’s minions. They had banded together ever since that day, slowly gathering survivors (only a few at this time) and trying to plan their attack. The symbiote bonded to Flash kept mostly quiet, focusing on keeping its host safe and seeming to follow his lead. 

“I have lost many over the years,” he finally responded. “People I… failed to reconcile with. And now I fear they are gone.”

The sounds of Flash taking his pistol apart to clean it stopped. Vision looked up when Flash set the gun down softly. “...lost my old man right as all this was going down. Didn’t want to reconcile with him, he didn’t deserve it, but my mom and my sister and brother-in-law had been there when the Queen destroyed the hospital.” 

“Losing family is difficult.”

“It was complicated.”

“I can relate.”

Flash looked up at that, with a little bit of an amused smile. “Well, at least you and I have got each other, right?” With his younger looks and astounding charisma, even in the face of the end of everything, Flash Thompson reminded Vision of others he’d known: Carol Danvers, Rick Jones, Clint Barton. All complicated people. All wonderful companions. 

“That, we do, Flash.” Vision allowed himself the barest hint of a smile. “That, we do.”

\-----

The Spider-Queen’s hordes had, as Steve Rogers might have described it, “done a number on him”. 

His systems could not self-repair as efficiently as before. In a moment of weakness, he had hesitated upon the approach of Ms. Marvel, despite knowing she was  _ not _ Carol Danvers. She was a mind-slave of the Spider-Queen, but he had cared very deeply for her once upon a time, and she had been there for Wanda when he had been too weak and too cold, and today, she’d taken advantage of that. Not Carol, but the Queen. 

Even so, that split second of hesitation had been enough for her to strike out at him with the power cosmic. She had fled upon his retaliation, but he was severly incapacitated at this point.

Agent Venom had burst onto the scene, their dual voice shouting in a panic,  **“** ** _Vision!_ ** **” ** and fought wildly to free him. Though his visual-optical processors had started to fail, he saw through bleary, darkening eyes the symbiote soldier become massive, wild and enraged. At first he feared that the alien’s rage had finally gotten the better of it and that Flash was just trapped with it. 

It quickly became clear that Agent Venom was more in-sync as one individual now than they ever had been before. 

As soon as they’d managed to fight off enough of the horde, they rushed to his side, the symbiote still laying down cover fire. They knelt to pick him up-

His voice, lacking even its usual inflections as his systems prioritized, stammered, “W-wait, Venom-”

Predictably, as soon as Agent Venom had their arms around him and went to lift, he hardly moved. There was an audible  _ pop _ as the human host’s shoulder dislocated.  **“Ah, fuck!”** They glared at him.  **“We’re trying to save you!”**

“It i-i-is an auto-automatic defense mechanism. Priorit-t-t-tize systems, increase density-”

**“Speech, too?”**

He nodded gravely. 

The symbiote soldier shook his head.  **“All right, pal, gonna need your help on this one.” ** Vision stared at them quizzically, but in the next moment (and with great effort) they had managed to scoop him up and throw him over their shoulder.  **“Hold on,”** was all they advised before making a dash towards their hideout community.

\-----

Back at the bunker, now about a dozen survivors large, Vision came to feeling stiff as a board. Thanks to the efforts of Jessica Drew and a few other resourceful individuals, they had managed to put together a makeshift medical bay. All Avengers were field-medicine trained and careful extraction of medical supplies had made this room possible. Vision just didn’t imagine that he himself would be in it. 

Or that he would wake up to a warm hand holding his own. Human flesh against plastoid. Vision turned to see Flash Thompson in a wheelchair beside him, the symbiote having made a head and face of its own, watching the synthezoid, also. A tendril snuck out and shook its host slightly, and Flash’s face lit up like a sunbeam when he saw Vision awake. 

“You’re okay!” The smile faltered. “Wait, you are - you  _ are _ okay, right? When the light faded from your eyes completely, I didn’t know what to do, we just got you back here, the solar crystal was busted up, you were like a  _ thousand _ pounds-”

He moved his other hand to cover Flash’s. “I am well, Flash. Thanks to you, and thanks to your partner.”

“I just- you saved me, you saved  _ us _ , and I couldn’t stand the thought of trying to face this without you, and I just…” His eyes glistened with unshed tears. “You’ve been out for two days, Vision. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Vision smiled gently at them. “Thank you, both. Sincerely. There is no other I would have by my side.”

Flash had leaned over to hug him, then, the symbiote in turn wrapping a multitude of tendrils around him in its own strange iteration of an embrace. 

He found he missed the touch when they pulled away.

\-----

Weeks passed.

It was unwise to pursue a relationship in the midst of a disaster such as this. Nonetheless, the more time he found he spent among Flash and the symbiote, the more he desired their company. Gone were the days of Flash looking at him star-struck, the admiration now having given way to an easy and comfortable friendship. Every time Flash brushed against him, asked him how he was doing in recovery, his nerves lit up over his whole system. Humans called it (interestingly enough) “short-circuiting”, which wasn’t  _ really _ the case for the android Avenger, but nevertheless, he found himself longing. Wanting. Needing.

Until one night they sat there on an old ratty couch going over schematics for a potentially dangerous mission the next day, when Flash blurted, “I don’t think you should go.”

His brow lifted in silent question.

“It’s- we might be facing Ms. Marvel again.”

“I will anticipate her attack, Flash Thompson. I will not abandon you or our teammates.”

Flash leaned over at that moment, taking Vision by the shoulders. He shook his head fiercely. “No, Vision,” and the symbiote covered part of his face,  **“we will not lose you. We cannot.”**

“Do you trust me?”

**“Of course we trust you!”**

“Because I trust you, Venom.” Vision reached over to grasp one of Flash’s hands in his own as the symbiote receded a little. “And I know you would never fail me.”

And then Flash took Vision’s face in his rough, calloused hands, and leaned in, hesitating. After a moment, Vision closed the space between them, and  _ oh _ , the way that kiss sent every one of his neurons into a frenzy… Teeth nipped gently at his crimson skin, tiny and sharp, and he reached up to stroke where the symbiote had draped over both its host and himself. Vision pushed Flash back, just a little, easing them all into a more comfortable position. 

They kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and wrapped its gentle, exploring strands around Vision, and Flash gasped when Vision kissed gently at his neck, and he was  _ so warm _ , and the symbiote was cool, and together they were something amazing and indescribable. He pulled away to look at Flash, flushed and beautiful, and combed a gentle hand through his hair. 

“We have all lost so many, Flash. I am not losing you, and you are not losing me.”

Flash leaned up to kiss him sweetly, just one more time. “Promise?”

“Until the end of the world, Agent Venom.”


End file.
